Skin of Evil

TNG Season 1 Episode 23
Air Date: April 25th, 1988

Plot

The Enterprise is waiting to rendezvous with a shuttle returning Counsellor Troi to the Enterprise when they get a distress call from the shuttle. They trace the call to a planet where the shuttle crashed. When they beam down, they find a creature that is a puddle of tar, but it is powerful. When Lt. Yar tries to get around it to see the shuttle the creature kills her. He identifies himself as Armus.

Armus had been left on the planet by his people for an undisclosed amount of time, and he is angry at them and everyone for it. He looks at the crew of the Enterprise as being there to amuse him. When he talks to Troi in the shuttle craft, her counselor skills actually makes him feel the cause of his anger which lowered his ability to prevent transport. At the end the creature is left alone again, forever.

Commentary

This was the episode where Lieutenant Natasha Yar is killed. It happens quick and at the beginning of the episode which leaves the viewer with the feeling of loss throughout the episode. The good bye recording that Tasha leaves the bridge crew was touching and left me liking the character more then I had in previous memories.

Quotes

"Lieutenant Worf, you're now Acting Chief of Security." - Picard
"I will do my best, sir." - Worf

"I'm a doctor. I need to treat our injured comrades." - Doctor Crusher
"Say please." - Armus
"Please." - Doctor Crusher
"You asked nicely. I will allow it. Wait, I've changed my mind." - Armus

"They perfected a means of bringing to the surface all that was evil and negative within, erupting, spreading, connecting. In time, it formed a second skin, dank and vile." - Armus

"A great poet once said, all spirits are enslaved that serve things evil." - Picard
"You do not understand. I do not serve things evil. I am evil." - Armus
"Oh, no. You're not." - Picard
"I am a skin of evil, left here by a race of Titans, who believed if they rid themselves of me, they would free the bonds of destructiveness." - Armus

"Hello, my friends. You are here now watching this image of me because I have died. It probably happened while I was on duty, and quickly, which is what I expected. Never forget I died doing exactly what I chose to do. What I want you to know is how much I loved my life, and those of you who shared it with me. You are my family. You all know where I came from and what my life was like before. But Starfleet took that frightened, angry young girl and tempered her. I have been blessed with your friendship and your love. Will Riker, you are the best. You trusted me, you encouraged me, and most of all you made me laugh. Deanna, you are capable of so much love. You taught me without ever having to say a word. I realised I could be feminine without losing anything. Ah, Worf. We are so much alike, you and I. Both warriors, orphans who found ourselves this family. I hope I met death with my eyes wide open. Beverly. Your fierce devotion comes from within. It can't be diminished. From you, I have learned to strive for excellence, no matter what the personal cost. Wesley, I'm sorry I won't be able to see you grow into the exceptional man you'll be. But your kindness and innocence are ageless. Geordi, in those moments I felt the most despair, you took my hand and helped me to see things differently. You taught me to look beyond the moment. My friend Data. You see things with the wonder of a child, and that makes you more human than any of us. Captain Jean-Luc Picard. I wish I could say you've been like a father to me, but I've never had one, so I don't know what it feels like. But if there was someone in this universe I could choose to be like, someone who I would want to make proud of me, it's you. You who have the heart of an explorer and the soul of a poet. So, you'll understand when I say, death is that state in which one exists only in the memory of others. Which is why it is not an end. No goodbyes. Just good memories. Hailing frequencies closed, sir." - Yar
"Au revoir, Natasha." - Picard

"Sir, the purpose of this gathering confuses me." - Data
"Oh? How so?" - Picard
"My thoughts are not for Tasha, but for myself. I keep thinking how empty it will be without her presence. Did I miss the point?" - Data
"No, you didn't, Data. You got it." - Picard